remora
Plural: remora, remorae, remoras
Noun
- A marine fish with a sucking disc on its head.
- marine fishes with a flattened elongated body and a sucking disk on the head for attaching to large fish or moving objects
- Any of various elongate fish from the family Echeneidae, the dorsal fin of which is in the form of a suction disc that can take a firm hold against the skin of larger marine animals.
- A serpent.
- A delay; a hindrance, an obstacle.
- A surgical instrument, intended to retain parts in their places.
Examples
- My opponent clung to the lead like a REMORA, making it hard for me to catch up.
Origin / Etymology
Borrowed from Latin remora (“delay, hindrance, passive resistance”), from the belief that the fish would attach themselves to ships and slow them down, from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards’) + mora (“delay”) (from Proto-Indo-European *mere (“to delay, hinder”), from *(s)mer- (“to fall into thinking, remember; to care for”)).
Synonyms
suckerfish, sucking fish, echeneid, echeneidid, sharksucker, suckfish, suckstone
Scrabble Score: 8
remora: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordremora: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
remora: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary